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Sara Jones Bright Dixon was 68 when Thomas Clay Friday, 40, and Matthew Devon Fields, 25, allegedly kicked in her door at 2049 McCray Road on Nov. 28, 2007, and shot her twice in the head. Friday pleaded guilty to the crime in May 2012 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Robert Dennis Dixon, 49, allegedly hired Friday and Fields to commit the murder and stage it to look like a robbery.

Robert Dixon is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree murder. He faces the death penalty if found guilty of the murder.

The trial will be held in the superior courtroom of the Alamance County Historic Courthouse. Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III will preside over the case. Alamance County District Attorney Pat Nadolski and Assistant District Attorney Sean Boone will represent the state. Robert Dixon is represented by defense attorney Terry W. Alford, of Spring Hope.

Because it is a capital case, it is expected to last more than a month.

Fields also faces the death penalty. His case won’t be joined for trial with Robert Dixon’s, Nadolski said.

After pleading guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a life sentence, Friday testified that Robert Dixon offered him $10,000 to kill Sara Dixon. Robert Dixon drew a map of the inside of Sara Dixon’s home and instructed Friday how to carry out the murder, Friday testified.

In that hearing, Boone said Robert Dixon wanted his stepmother killed because his father’s medical bills were mounting after she placed him in full-time care. He wanted Sara Dixon to care for his father at home. Medical expenses had forced Sara Dixon to sell off pieces of the 41-acre estate where Robert Dixon also lived, Boone said.

In exchange for the plea, Friday agreed to testify for the state during Robert Dixon’s and Fields’ trials.

The three men weren’t charged with Sara Dixon’s killing until July 2009.